Management threat
Given that Minh Le hasn’t been working at Valve for some time, it’s hard to know exactly when he was looking at concepts for Half-Life 3 and Left 4 Dead 3. Remember when Gabe Newell made references to the stop/start nature of work on Ricochet 2? Is that the period he’s referring to? Because it’s equally likely that in the interim period the project has all but collapsed. Who knows? That’s the problem, isn’t it? Mr Le says it’s public knowledge they’re making the game, but that’s pretty far from the truth. Any thoughts or insights on this, GC?

Of course, if I was Gabe Newell I’d have put my foot down years ago and said, ‘We’re making this bloody game now and that’s the end of it. All hands on deck.’ But that’s not how they do business. Other revenue streams and priorities have consumed the company. It seems that horizontal management is a greater threat to Gordon Freeman’s future than the combine ever were.Tingle’s Therapist

GC: Valve make Nintendo look transparent, so we can offer no suggestions – and as you point even a supposed insider doesn’t seem particularly convincing in his revelations. If we had to guess though we’d say we just don’t think enough people at Valve are all that interested in making single-player video games any more.

Herr Ober, in meiner suppe schwimmt eine fiege
Wolfenstein: The New Order is the first new game I’ve bought in a while, but I’m always keen to support good developers. I ended up buying the PlayStation 3 version as it was almost a tenner cheaper for some reason. The problem though was in configuring the controls or more specifically the aiming and shooting to the L1 and R1 buttons.
Naturally that soon proved to be impossible as there were four fixed controller configurations, all using L2 and R2 for shooting and aiming. This is not a big deal as I’ll still be able to play the game easily enough – though many would agree that the PlayStation 3 controller is more comfortable for a first person shooter using L1 and R1 to shoot and aim as opposed to L2 and R2.

The real point is why is not being able to fully configure the controller to one’s own liking an industry standard? It seems bizarre that this is still an issue within gaming, and it’s something so easily rectified. Just think even some older games like Unreal Tournament III let the player change the settings to their heart’s content.
In the end it’s just a minor inconvenience for me but for anybody who might have restricted hand movement for example it’s a big issue – and from memory I’m sure one GameCentral reader has written in about this very problem. Again it’s absurd that it should be this way as It seems such a basic and easily avoidable error.

There will always be games that are valid exceptions: games which have a very particular gameplay reason to use a specific layout, such as Zelda: Skyward Sword. Games such as Wolfenstein are ten a penny in the gaming sphere in terms of gameplay, and the inability to fully change the controller settings seems a baffling anachronism. I may be using Wolfenstein as an example, but it really is an industry wide problem.

I’d be curious to know if you had any opinion on this GC, or is it that I’m getting my panties in a bunch over nothing?Mr Verbosity

GC: We do agree it’s a peculiar failing of the industry at large, and there’s no excuse for it. Although saying that, you should probably be burned as a witch for wanting to use L1 and R1 in that way.

Casual dress for old school
Have been playing through the new Wolfenstein game over the past few days and the first thing that springs to mind is that this game is punishingly hard.

I’ve found that I am struggling with the very limited ammo and any minor mistakes I make usually ends in death – however the checkpoints are pretty generous. I like how the game is pretty old school with the manual pick-ups of health/armour and ammo.

The game looks pretty great but have had a couple bugs and problems with draw distance a few times (I’m playing it on PC) but nothing game breaking.

In summary it’s excellent but hard (for this casual gamer at least!) but I’m slowly plodding my way through and so far I’d rate it a 7/10TheSpectre_N8 (PSN ID)

GC: Not to be obvious but have you tried turning the difficult down a notch? You can do so at any time from the pause menu.

Couldn’t wait
Having been getting a bit bored with my Xbox 360 (showing its age, a bit like myself!) I’ve decided it’s time for the next gen. Now I’ve been gaming since the ZX81 days so I tend to do my homework when buying my console. My favourite console ever is the SNES and I’ve always been a Nintendo fan (the GameCube remake of the original Resident Evil is my fave game ever), therefore l was taking a close look at the Wii U.

However, research over and bargain found I’ve went for the PlayStation 4 (bought for a reasonable price of £265 with two official controllers and Killzone). Nintendo really should learn from past mistakes. l think the Wii U could be a big success if they released a version with a normal Pro joypad and make the games the fans want.

Look how good Mario Kart looks, now imagine a version of Wave Race/Super Mario Galaxy/1080° Snowboarding/Pilotwings/Star Fox/F-Zero lavished with the same care and attention. Without the GamePad the console could be nearer £150, this along with the games l mentioned could make it a lot of gamer’s second console, along with the Xbox One and PlayStation 4. Any news on EA’s golf game for this year, or FIFA 15.Rob

GC: Would it not have been better to wait two weeks until E3 (where you’ll also probably find out about EA’s new sports games too)? Although that that is an inexplicably low price for a PlayStation 4. Was it second-hand or something? As for the Wii U, the GamePad is what makes it unique – it’s never going to be released without it. And much as we love them none of those franchises are big sellers.

Pro selection
I didn’t have anything that stood out when you did the favourite soundtracks Hot Topic a few weekends back and I was too busy to contribute, but it coincided with me watching a lot of old Amiga games on YouTube and I realised how much those old tunes had stayed with me.

Much of the music for the Amiga was in the soundtracker ‘mod’ format, meaning it could often be ripped and saved using an Action Replay cartridge. I used to love taking the soundtracks out of games and loading them up in something like Protracker. I’d see how the tune had been put together, save all the instruments and then use them for my own attempts.

Bad example
After all the comments regarding Challenge’s VideoGame Nation, I decided to see what the fuss was about. Watching, I was told how sexist the Dead Or Alive franchise was, however one of the presenters, Emily Hartridge, wore a rather racy see through top and seemed to be fond of raising her arms to expose her midriff! Mmmm, Conflicting messages I think.Mary Whitehouse

GC: Did she at any point take part in a painfully dull volleyball game and the pretend to be your friend in exchange for expensive gifts? If not we think Dead Or Alive still comes out of it looking worse.

Three times offender
On the subject of pre-ordering, I’m barely qualified to answer as I’ve only done it three times but my reason would have to be convenience. My local Tesco was only five minutes away compared to the 20 minutes it took to get to the town centre. Plus it was on my route home from work on the games release days and generally their prices are good. Grand Theft Auto V was £8 cheaper than Blockbuster for example.

The other games were BioShock Infinite and God Of War: Ascension so I knew they would be pretty safe bets. (I may have been the only one to pre-order Ascension though.) I feel I should add that I wouldn’t take a punt without reading a review first.Silverfox-75 (PSN ID)

GC: But why did any of that necessitate a pre-order? Was there really any danger of any of those games being sold out?

2004 called, it wants its news back
Something that has not been acknowledged by video game journalists…

Sega is clearly moving towards publishing and no longer making any games. We have seen Sega’s second greatest studio, AM7/Overworks/SegaWOW dissolved, effectively meaning Valkyria Chronicles, Skies Of Arcadia, Sakura Wars, and Phantasy Star have become dead IPs.

Rieko Kodama is marooned, without a studio, and not making anything, in the same situation Yu Suzuki was prior to his departure. The acquisition of Atlus and Relic, combined with the disintegration of Sega’s in-house talent, confirms this strategy.

Sonic Team are now a mediocre studio. With only Nagoshi, a man who has singularly failed to make a game that appeals to Western gamers (the dismal Binary Domain springs to mind) aside from Daytona, and Kumagi of Virtua Tennis and Virtual On fame remaining, Sega is no longer a credible developer. They are in effect, a bland publisher dependent on other people’s IPs, and a maker of trashy Pachinko machines, nothing more. They are dead.

What is your view on the imminent demise of AM2 and the soon to be future where Sega are merely publishing and no longer making games?Gary Wintle

GC: Hang on, we’re still struggling to understand how you can describe Binary Domain as dismal.

A winner is not you
RE: StalinsEpic Tash. You’re right of course there’s not really any need to pre-order a game, although I’ll be honest and admit I have on occasion, but what really baffles me is the practice of pre-downloading, which I believe arrives on PlayStation 4 later in the year starting with Destiny.

Now this makes absolutely no sense to me whatsoever, but visit many game sites and you’ll find a lot of people who can’t wait for this feature. God knows why but the main reason seems to be to play a new game at 12.01am on release day! OK, each to their own. But what if it turns out the game sucks or you simply don’t like it? At least with physical pre-orders you can cancel, now you’re stuck with it and, of course, you can’t even sell it or trade it in. Worst of all though you have to pay the frankly ridiculous new game prices on PSN/Xbox Live.

It looks to me the only winners with pre-downloading will be games publishers and the platform holders, guaranteed sales before even a single review has been seen and they’re cutting out the middle man, it’s a service I won’t be using any time soon.dyniner(PSN ID)

This week’s Hot Topic
The talking point for this weekend’s Inbox was suggested by reader Bolo31, who asks what kind of video game you’d make if you had the money and expertise?

Your idea can’t be a sequel or be based on a licence, although being inspired by existing games or concepts is fine. Also, try not to go too big budget and crazy – no ‘everything simulators’ – just describe a game idea that you’d like to see made and which you think could be created with a reasonably sized budget.

Have you actually ever tried to make a game, or at least design one in your head? How aware are you of how the process works and how involved have you got with creating in-game user content or fan mods? Has playing games given you the urge to create them or would you rather just play them and not be bothered with creating them yourself?